Things I have learned during recovery

Recovery can be a terrifying concept, change is scary especially if you’ve not been okay for so long. It’s okay to be scared to be worried, I certainly was.

It’s been a few years now since I turned my families lives upside down, suffering from a mental illness not only effected me but all of my family, for so long, and I couldn’t be more grateful for everything they did for me. Now I’m on the other side I can tell you, recovering is weird. It isn’t quick and my God is it not easy.

You have to force yourself to get up every morning, you know that staying in bed will make you miserable, however much you want the world to disappear getting up and dressed makes such a different to your day.

Everyone is different no two people’s brains are identical, heck maybe not even similar. Everyone recovers at a different pace, and it’s okay to not move as fast as everyone else.

Don’t be so hard on yourself, it’s not going to happen overnight, you’re not just suddenly going to feel okay. A relapse can show you how far you’ve come, and how to push on from there.

Cut out all toxic people, we live in a culture that would would rather be nice than truthful but when it comes to recovery you’ve got to be selfish, you come first and that’s ok. Taking away negative influences from your life and surrounding yourself with positive people makes the world of difference.

Medication isn’t for everyone I know so many people who swear by anti depressants which kept pushing me to continue taking them, but the truth is for me they only made me feel less of a person, I’d rather be me than that. I found what worked best is to constantly push myself, but that could be entirely personal preference.

It’ll get better in the end, I never believed it, and if I hadn’t of tried so hard perhaps it wouldn’t have. But in the last two years my life has changed entirely, sometimes I forget, but I couldn’t be more proud.

These are just my own personal tips and tricks, if you’ve got any of your own leave them in the comments below.

*This post is based purely on personal opinion of someone who’s experienced a mental health issue, not that of a qualified proffessional*